'Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans' Opens Brilliantly With Its First Episode 'Iron And Blood'

One of the trickier things to get right in Gundam, is when they venture off into the alternate universe timelines. Iron-Blooded Orphans appears to be an all-new continuity but unlike some of its earlier compatriots, it looks to be something quite special indeed.

Naturally, if you haven’t seen the first episode yet then all of the following is encased in a very large spoiler warning.

Gundam Meets Dougram

Over the years, Gundam has flirted with the idea of expendable child soldiers born within war zones. Like with Setsuna in Gundam 00 and to a lesser extent with the Kuntala in Reconguista in G, though more of this in a minute.

Previously in Gundam, you tended to have civilians thrust into a war and having to survive. It made for compelling viewing, as it made the characters accessible but at the expense that sometimes things didn’t make narrative sense when newbies took out veteran soldiers.

The workaround for this were the original Newtypes. These were the next stage of human evolution and had extra sensory powers, among many other things. So whenever a protagonist got into a tight spot, their Newtype prowess would bail them out.

The grizzled Orga Itsuka, with slightly problematic hair.

I am simplifying this quite substantially obviously but this is something the lack of experienced soldiers in the story had to deal with.

This is why the child soldier setup in Iron-Blooded Orphans works so well. They’re already trained and brutally exploited, so not only do you sympathize with them but also their general combat prowess makes more sense now.

This whole gritty and ground based vibe with child soldiers really harks back to Fang of the Sun Dougram and I wholeheartedly approve of that approach.

A Battle For Independence

The main narrative of Iron-Blooded Orphans is about how Mars is effectively a suzerainty of Earth after a brutal war three hundred years ago.

The child soldiers are a by-product of the fact that Earth is exploiting the resources and workforce of Mars to prop up their own economy. In that sense, the kids are openly called “human garbage”.

This situation has catalyzed the Martian populace for an open call to independence. In doing so the city of Chryse has lead the way with Kudelia Aina Bernstein being at the forefront of the movement.

Naturally, Earth is by no means happy about this and much of the first episode is how they intend to set a trap for Kudelia and take her out. Something her father even assists in, mostly to save his own skin.

The plan being to send her to Earth with a seemingly rookie child soldier escort and take her and the privately funded Chryse Security Guard out, though things don’t quite go according to plan.

Nicely Grounded Characters

The main two characters are Mikazuki Augus and Orga Itsuka, with Mikazuki as the skilled mecha pilot and Orga as the strategist who clearly sees the trap for what it is and plans accordingly.

The dynamic between the two really reminds me of the Amuro and Bright relationship from the original Gundam, though more brotherly. There is also a grounded sense that these characters are on their own and that they need to fend for themselves.

The adults on the base are mostly despicable and even try to sacrifice their own forces to escape, something that Orga foresees and expertly trolls.

Mikazuki Augus explains the situation to Kudelia.

Kudelia is also interesting as she is idealistic but wants to understand the plight of her people. So much so that she attempts to befriend Mikazuki, who reminds her that he is by no means on equal terms with her so why even try. This is something that openly bothers Kudelia, as her good intentions aren’t enough and I am curious to see how this will be explored over the course of the series.

The setting and overall design of the series is nicely done but the characters look a little out of place. I think it will grow on me but considering the quite dark tone of the show, the Gundam AGE-esque character designs feel a bit kiddy.

One more thing though is that I think that Biscuit Griffon will be one of my favorite characters. More the intelligence analyst and co-strategist with Orga, he’s definitely a tough little guy. Plus, he’s called Biscuit and that’s just great

Biscuit Griffon, probably the best name for a Gundam character yet.

Force Escalation

The pacing of the first episode is excellent and lays solid groundwork for the battle at the end. From the initial land mine placing at the start of the episode, to how they feed into the base’s overall defense is one of many nice pieces of foreshadowing.

The battle also doesn’t pull any punches; these are child soldiers and are as such expendable. From seeing young kids getting sniped in the head and friends getting brutally killed, this is something the older Gundam series definitely shied away from.

For instance, we only heard about how the Kuntala were used for food in Reconguista in G and bar a few flashbacks in Gundam 00 we didn’t see much of Setsuna’s child soldier history either.

Here though, there is no attempt to hide what’s happening. These are expendable kids fighting for their life against a hugely powerful adversary.

The battle scenes are quite brutal for Gundam and don't hold a lot back.

It’s here where we also shift from the smaller mobile worker tanks to the arrival of Earth's Gjallarhorn mobile suits. With what went from being a brutal battle to a full out slaughter.

The mobile suits are several orders more powerful than anything else on the battlefield and it’s not long before everyone is trying to escape.

Orga maintains command and retreats to use his ace in the hole, which is Mikazuki in the ancient Gundam Barbatos erupting from its underground hangar to the surprise of the Gjallarhorn forces.

Downing one of the Gjallarhorn mobile suits in one hit, the episode finished with the Gundam Barbatos standing on the battlefield with two more Earth mobile suits left to deal with.

Too Much Name Dropping

This was a minor thing really but as the first episode has to set the world up and introduce characters, some of that delivery was a bit clumsy.

Such as reciting the full name of one of the future antagonists in a casual conversation so we all know who he is for later episodes, was a bit heavy handed. To be honest, a lot of the introductions weren’t entirely necessary and could have been skipped but there was an upside to all this.

This is because the mysterious Ahab Reactors were mentioned quite a bit, as well as how the war partly started three hundred years ago. This kind of world building I think is necessary and it's important to start with this kind of thing from the beginning of a series, rather than introduce it later.

In Conclusion…

The narrative pacing and understated characterization as well as the general world building suggest this could be a solid show. Mari Okada has written what looks to be something that has legs and I am definitely interested to see how she will build the series in the coming months.

After the mostly incoherent mess of Reconguista in G, it’s nice to have a Gundam series that actually makes more sense again. Here’s hoping it will encourage more people to follow it.

Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans is already available on most major anime streaming services in a variety of languages.